It has been clear since Trump fired Comey that the former F.B.I. director would have a central and threatening role in the theatre of this Presidency, yet neither Trump nor his advisers and allies seem to have figured out what to say about him.
In his testimony, Comey recalled that during a private White House dinner on January 27, the president asked him for "loyalty" and to lay off his former top aide Flynn - who is under investigation over his Russian Federation ties - imploring Comey to "let this go".
"When I chose to just do it, I said to myself, I said you know, this Russian Federation thing with Trump and Russian Federation is a made-up story", Mr. Trump told NBC News after he fired Comey.
"I didn't say that", Trump said at a joint press conference alongside the president of Romania. In his testimony, Mr. Comey detailed months of distrust of the President and bluntly asserted that Mr. Trump had fired him to interfere with the probe of Russia's ties to the Trump campaign.
Comey said a decision was made not report to Sessions a February 14 White House meeting where Trump pressed the director to drop the FBI's inquiry into Flynn, whom Trump fired for withholding information about his contacts with foreign governments.
That one-on-one meeting and his subsequent dinner meeting with President Trump, James Comey revealed to the US Senate Intelligence Committee that he later noted down the entire dialogue between them. "That was an excuse by the Democrats who lost an election that some people think they shouldn't have lost, because it's nearly impossible for the Democrats to lose the electoral college, as you know", the president said. Comey also said he had to document conversations with the president out of fear Mr. Trump might later lie about the nature of those conversations.
After Comey was sacked, Trump had tweeted, "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
The GOP baseball shooting is the 154th mass shooting this year
It's clear that people, mostly men, who control their partners with abuse are more likely to be violent outside their homes . But they are pragmatic enough to know the latest shooting doesn't dramatically alter the dynamics of their uphill battle.
Trump branded Comey a "leaker" for indirectly providing to reporters the contents of memos he wrote after their private conversations. The picture presented by Comey is instead of a president driven mad by the investigation, in particular by his inability to get the FBI director to say publicly that he isn't under investigation - when, in fact, he wasn't under investigation.
"James Comey confirmed a lot of what I said. No, I didn't say that". "And there'd be nothing wrong if I did say it, according to everyone I've read today".
The White House was considering former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a replacement for the bureau's former boss James Comey before Mueller was scooped up to lead the government's Russian Federation probe, according to a new report.
"I hardly know the man", said Trump. Comey may not have broken the law by leaking his memo to his friend Daniel Richman, but did he violate a pledge he made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation?
For those who remember the statesmanship some key politicians showed the last time a president did battle with our democratic institutions, the naked partisanship of the early response to Trump's dishonesty was profoundly disheartening. "We are doing really well", he said.
Trump continued to be coy about the possibility of there being recordings of his conversations with Comey, which he has suggested previously.
Comments